Crab Dribbles, Runs for the Border and Last Laughs

By Christopher Sells
01.7.2009 - Updated on 01.7.2009

The NBA entered the Twilight Zone last night. The Celtics and Lakers lost while the Thunder pulled out a rare win. Granted, it took overtime for Boston to lose and the Hornets needed 40 from David West to down the Lakers. And the Thunder played the Knicks, against whom anything is possible. It goes to show you that anything can happen on any given night. The second that you start expecting things, you get surprised. The Celtics have now lost five out of seven, the Lakers may be faced with playing without Lamar Odom and the Thunder will probably still struggle to win games, but have something to perhaps build on. Sometimes, though, it doesn’t go like you thought it would. That’s why they play the games.

Crab, Crap... Same Difference
The latest talk out of Cleveland doesn’t inolve how the Cavaliers are now tied with the Lakers for the best record in the league. It doesn’t mention Zydrunas Ilgauskas’ injury and how the team will fare without their big man. No, all of the talk out of Cleveland is about this stupid crab dribble that LeBron James did. I didn’t originally mention it because it didn’t seem to be that big of a deal, but clearly the Wizards and Cavs won’t let it die. The Wiz had plenty of fun with it after the game and now LeBron is convinced that he didn’t travel. He had this to say about all of the attention the move has received:

"Everything I do is a big deal," James said, smiling. "It’s easy for people who don’t play the game of basketball to say something about a certain move. You hear all the people on SportsCenter talk about it, but they’ve never touched a basketball in their lives. They just report about it."

Fair enough. You don’t respect the opinions of a lot of non-basketball players. On a lot of the nuances of the game, I can empathize with that take. But LeBron, you traveled. Deal with it. You’re still one of the best players in the league and you’ll probably win MVP this year but you traveled. And if by some miracle all of you haven’t seen video of the play, you can view it here and form your own opinion. Can we just move on now?

Carmelo Out
As feared, Carmelo Anthony will indeed miss time with a broken bone in his hand. The specialist said the Nuggets forward will miss four weeks. In that span, the Nuggets do play a few of the league’s heavy hitters, but they face most of them at home. Perhaps they’ll be able to tread water until he returns. A .500 records would probably be acceptable. It’s time for everyone to step up in Anthony’s absence, most notably Chauncey Billups and JR Smith.

Howard a Raptor?
According to reports, Josh Howard is being shopped in a deal to the Toronto Raptors. The deal might also involve Sagana Diop, Andrea Bargnani and Anthony Parker. The Raptors have been looking for an upgrade at small forward and the Mavericks have been looking for a reason to move Howard out of town. There is no truth to the rumor that Howard’s preferred destination was north of the border so that he could continue to not respect The Star-Spangled Banner.

McGrady Responds to his Critics
There’s a good read here in a Tracy McGrady interview with the Houston paper. As a Rocket fan, I won’t say too much about it, but Mac seems to be really emotional about some things and has strong opinions about some others. One notable quote of many from the story:

"I criticize myself, "McGrady said Monday. "I can take it from anybody, from everybody. I know my ability. And when I do get right, all that ... is put to rest. So kick me when I’m down, because I swear to you, I’ll be back up. And when I get back up, I’m going to sit back, and I’m going to laugh, man, because I’m going to have the last laugh."

Until McGrady has that last laugh, please remember that the Rockets are once again underachieving and the culprit behind the team not performing to expectations is once again their injury situation. I’m just saying what I’m saying.

Miles to Go
Darius Miles’ quest to once again be a relevant NBA player hit a snag when he was waived yesterday by the Grizzlies. He served his ten-game suspension with the team and played in two games. If he catches on with another team and plays eight more games, the Portland Trail Blazers, who waived him because they said his knee wasn’t good enough to be played on, would be responsible for the $18 million that he is owed. With all the young talent that they plan on re-signing, this would definitely be undesirable. It’s always great when you have organizations rooting against you as a person because of what you represent for them financially.

[image:http://www.flickr.com/photos/keithallison/]

3 Comments: Crab Dribbles, Runs for the Border and Last Laughs

Posted by
DTP
on 01.8.2009

Yeah those 6 preseason games for the Celtics counted Small World .

Posted by
bek$
on 01.8.2009

its 2 games for miles not 8 .

Posted by

on 01.7.2009

Umm, this page should be fixed, it is an eye sore. I hope this isn’t what you call new an improved .

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